And that's another year behind us. After a dismal 2020, with huge wildfires and drought here in California, and of course the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, all of us were hoping for a better 2021. Unfortunately, 2021 was only a marginal improvement over 2020, at least for cycling.
But with the arrival of vaccines against COVID-19, things were looking up, and I was cautiously optimistic that track cycling races would start up again. So for this season I hired a new coach from the UK, Adey Dent, because my two teammates for the team sprint, Rich Rozzi and Martin Harris, were already coaching with him, and it made sense to have coordinated training.
Just like back in 2018, I was again completely focused on the Masters Track World Championships. After two years where they were held in Manchester, England, in 2021 they were again scheduled to be in Carson, just north of Los Angeles, at the awesome indoor 250 m wooden VELO Sports Center track. The motivation I gained from that helped me deal with the craziness surrounding me in the world outside.
For this year I completely focused on team sprint, and secondarily the 500 m individual time trial (ITT). I was able to attend fairly regular advanced training sessions with my teammates at San Jose's Hellyer Velodrome on Sunday mornings, plus race in several local races there. I also invested in a set of FFWD carbon wheels with the ultra soft Vittoria Pista Speed tires required to race on the track at Carson, using the money I saved from not going anywhere during the pandemic, I guess.
Adey started my training very early, in November of 2020, 11 months out from Worlds, including lots of workouts at the gym and sprint-specific bike workouts. Unfortunately a shoulder injury (incurred from what? maybe my new desk while working from home? or the shift in my gym workouts?), and gym closures from the pandemic rules, kept my gym workouts below where I had been before. But I was still able to maintain considerable strength, and the bike workouts were amazing, with tons of standing starts and long sprints. I even built a simple starting gate myself to help make the standing starts training as similar to what I’d be doing at Worlds.
We also got to race together at both the Elite Track District Championships and the Masters Track District Championships, and did well enough to medal in both team sprint events. That was something, and the quick times we set gave me hope for our team's potential at Worlds. So I was able to add two more District Championships to my palmares, for a total of 13 now.
But wouldn't you know it, the pandemic struck again: due to the complexities of international travel which prevented many foreign cyclists from entering, plus continuing mask mandates in Los Angeles, after much deliberation the UCI announced that the Masters Track World Championships were canceled. What a letdown. This was announced just two weeks before USA Cycling's National Championships, held in Pennsylvania, so we discussed the possibility of quickly refocusing on that instead.
However, shifting from Worlds to Nationals in such a short time was a big ask for several reasons. First, Martin had taken too many vacation days off from work and announced that he wouldn't be able to go. Rich and I were then faced with trying to find a replacement rider for our team sprint. That's nearly impossible in such a short time, and going to Nationals in Pennsylvania would be very complicated and expensive and offered no guarantee that we'd even be able to race in the team sprint, much less do well. Plus, getting flights for the correct date and finding rental cars and hotels was very difficult at that time due to the pandemic restrictions and cutbacks in services and numbers of flights and availability of rental cars.
So, reluctantly, we decided not to go to Nationals. As a very small consolation prize, we decided to race at Carson's velodrome, in one of the LAVRA events like we've done in the past, just for fun. And of course it would be a good way to test ourselves and compare against others to see where we would stand as a team.
Well, in short, I was pretty disappointed at the end of the September 19th LAVRA races. Both my flying 200 m (12.575), my 500 m ITT (37.916), and our time in the team sprint (52.677) were disappointing and well off from where I had hoped to be. I've noticed all year that I'm slower than I used to be, and I'm sure all of us have had a difficult time training during the pandemic, but I sure had hoped my intense training with Adey would have paid off in speed.
For comparison, here are split times (in seconds) from a few of my 500 m ITTs over the years:
At Hellyer (335 m track: first split at 167.5 m, second split at 335 m):
- 8/22/2021 (98.4"): 15.91, 27.12, 38.87
- 7/24/2021 (98.4"): 15.84, 26.64, 38.19
- 8/4/2019 (94.5"): —, —, 36.23
- 8/25/2018 (92.6”): —, —, 37.06
- 9/10/2017 (96.4"): —, —, 37.23
At LA (250 m track: so each split is for 250 m):
- 9/19/2021 (98.4"): —, —, 37.916
- 8/30/2019 (96.4"): 20.926, 15.684, 36.610
- 7/28/2019 (96.4"): 21.984, 15.011, 36.905
- 10/7/2018 (92.6”): 20.655, 16.258, 36.913
- 9/16/2018 (92.6”): —, —, 36.302
- 10/9/2017 (96.4"): 20.523, 15.739, 36.262
For sure, disappointing. However, in retrospect, as I compare against the times at the National Championships, it looks like I might have been competitive in the 500 m ITT. Maybe. In my age group the winning time at 2021 Track Nationals in the 500 m ITT was 37.708, so my 37.916 was close, but on a very different track to be sure. There are a lot of variables, but it gave me some hope that I can still be competitive.
Here's an table with updates of my various results over the last few years:| 2012 | 2013 | 2104 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flying 200m: | 12.6 | 12.26 | 12.04 | 12.1 | 11.94 | 12.12 | 11.887 | 11.877 | 12.575 |
| Standing-start 500m: | 39.2 | 37.9 | 37.2 | 36.2 | 36.579 | 36.262 | 36.302 | 36.23 | 37.916 |
| Back squat: | 275# | 300# (3x) | 305# | NA | NA* | ||||
| Bench press: | 185# (3x) | 205# | 220# | 255# | 265# | NA* | |||
| Deadlift: | 335# | 365# | 395# | 424.4# | NA* |
* No real numbers for 2021. In January 2022 I managed only 190# bench press (thanks to the shoulder injury), but my back squat is at least 295# now, and my standard deadlift 405#.
So, where does that leave me for 2022? Yeah, good question. I literally have no idea at this time. USA Cycling has still not announced where the 2022 Masters Track National Championships will be held, or when, so until I have that information I can't say for sure. If they are in Carson I would certainly consider going.
But for now all I'm doing is enjoying life, going to the gym to regain some of my previous strength (following a program provided by Santa Cruz Strength), and riding the bike just enough to keep some fitness there too. Things are so uncertain now, that I'm just learning to live day to day. Let's hope for a better 2022!
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